Amazon Prime Video Introduces Offline Viewing for iPhone and iPad

Amazon's Prime Video streaming service today announced the ability for its users to download television shows and movies to an iPhone, iPad, or Android device (via Re/code). The service had previously supported such a feature, but it was exclusively available for Amazon's own Fire tablets, with today marking the first expansion onto Apple's smartphones.

The feature will let Prime users download video content for later viewing when not in direct proximity of a trustworthy Wi-Fi connection, but won't be available for every single show and film currently offered on Amazon Prime Video. The company still claims to have "thousands" of videos ready to support the new service.

amazon prime app

The feature isn’t available for every video Amazon streams, since Amazon needs to work out deals with individual content owners (that is – pay them more money). Amazon says it has “thousands” of titles available for download.

And it looks like those titles include a pretty diverse lineup: There are Amazon’s own home-grown shows, like “Transparent”, of course. But also offerings from CBS (“The Good Wife”), Fox (“Sons of Anarchy”), MGM (“The Hunger Games”) and Paramount (“Star Trek Into Darkness”).

Re/code reports that "in most cases," users will have 15 to 30 days to view the content once it has been downloaded. Today's announcement aims to bolster Amazon Prime Video -- which is bundled into Amazon's $99/year Prime service -- with a feature most other streaming services have yet to support.

Users can download the updated app -- now called "Amazon Video" -- from the App Store for free [Direct Link].

Tags: Amazon, Amazon Prime Video

Top Rated Comments

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doelcm82

53 months ago

Call me when Netflix offers offline viewing.

I'm going to be busy that day. You'll have to monitor the Internet yourself.

Rating: 5 Votes

USB-Adapter

53 months ago

Finally I can get rid of this crappy amazon kindle fire tablet!

Rating: 3 Votes

GlenK

53 months ago

Love Prime and it just keeps getting better. Saving a ton of money already!!!

Rating: 3 Votes

Gasu E.

53 months ago

Given the new revelations about Amazon's business practices (on top of all the existing issues), I have decided to de-Amazon my life.

Rating: 2 Votes

2010mini

53 months ago

Great Move Amazon!

Now bring Prime to the Apple TV.

Rating: 2 Votes

mxmgodin

53 months ago

This might be a stupid thing to say only noticed its on certain titles

It was actually mentionned in the article: [...] won't be available for every single show and film currently offered on Amazon Prime Video. The company still claims to have "thousands" of videos ready to support the new service.

Rating: 1 Votes

0007776

53 months ago

This is great, the one downside about streaming services is that they don't work if you're on a plane flight, so if they have good content available this will come in handy for times when I'll be away from the internet.

I do have doubts that they'll actually have much in the way of good content to begin with though, I'm guessing the studios will experiment with a few less popular or older movies and see how it goes.

Rating: 1 Votes

TsMkLg068426

53 months ago

So Amazon Prime streaming Movies/TV Shows is okay on the iPhone but not on Apple TV makes a lot of sense:rolleyes:

Rating: 1 Votes

Ballis

53 months ago

Amazon needs to bring their services to more regions.

Rating: 1 Votes

Narcaz

53 months ago

Is it an aTV 2? Last I looked they were selling for hundreds on eBay. Sell it and buy an aTV3, an iPad, and some of those new Oreo slims. I hear they are good.

Edit: just checked. You could get two aTV3.

It's a ATV 3 rev.1 from june 2012 without support for Peer to Peer. Only models produced after march 2013 (rev. 2) have the newer silicon, which made it possible. Apple didn't highlight this hardware change and said they were identical, until they introduced the functionality last september for rev 2 only. And with the upcoming ATV 4 i am not really interested in investing in outdated technology. But i am very interested in those new Oreo slims.

how well does the ipad lightning to hdmi adapter work, and what are the video issues?

I have an LG "smart" tv (otherwise a good tv, but the 'apps' are crap; what a ripoff with expiring apps! and the last system software update on the tv was in 2011) for which Amazon just discontinued support -- so I can't use it to watch Prime video directly anymore. It was a crappy app anyway, so I rarely used it. But there are times when I might want to - video is better on a 42" from my couch than a 27" at my desk or the 9.7" iPad!

Waiting to see whether the next ATV will be worth it - and I know it won't include access to prime. So, I'll compare to Roku once the ATV is announced in a few weeks. So, I may still need an alternate way to get prime video to my TV.

You better get a Fire TV Stick for this scenario. Cheaper than the adapter and you get better quality. The adapter is limited to an upscaled 1600x900 resolution (not full 1080p) due to constraints of USB/Lightning interface and has even a slight delay and compression artefacts. I could live with that for vacation (if offline mode works!), but i wouldn't use it for my home setup. Or wait for the (soon to be updated) Apple TV, which might have an App Store, which allows an Amazon Instant Video App.

They need to add a Downloaded tab to the app. It’s almost impossible to see what you’ve downloaded!!

On my iPad downloaded movies appear in the library tab.

Rating: 1 Votes

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